The causes and pattern of presentation of male factor infertility as seen at Kenyatta national Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Infertility is defined as a failure to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 months or more of regular unprotected sexual intercourse(1)(2). Overall, 30% of infertility prevalence is attributed exclusively to male factors, 35% to female factors, 20% to both female and male factors while 15% remains unexplained(5)(3). Therefore, male factor infertility is at least partly responsible for 50% of the cases of infertility(3). This study aimed to identify and describe the causes and pattern of presentation of male factor infertility at the Kenyatta National Hospital.
Materials and Methodology: The study was a cross-sectional study. The study was conducted at the Kenyatta National Hospital, a National teaching and referral (Level 6) hospital in Kenya.The study population was all the patients with male factor infertility that attended the urological, gynaecological and doctors’ plaza clinics at the Kenyatta National Hospital over a period of 7 months. A pre-tested, structured and close- ended questionnaire was administered. Additional information was obtained from patient case notes.
Results: 60.5% of male factor infertility to be due to unexplained factors, 31.6% due to varicoceles, 2.6% due to congenital factors (zinner syndrome) and 5.2% due to ejaculatory duct obstruction.
Conclusion: Male factor infertility is a common and distressing condition. Difficulties in the accurate diagnosis of male reproductive dysfunction complicates our understanding of the epidemiology and aetiology of the condition. Further research with a larger sample size will allow for computation of associations and allow for generalization of data.